How to Write Emotions That You Don't Feel

  When you're writing, chances are good that at some point you're going to have to write an emotion that either you don't know or don't currently feel. Never been in love? Me neither, and writing the romance that's in my books isn't easy! You're angry and sad, but your character is exuding happiness? If you're like I used to be, then that happy character has a major disappointment coming there way in about 2 seconds...
  That, aside from being unfair to your character, makes for a bit on a confusing roller-coaster of random events and emotions. Not great writing!
  Here are some ways you can fix this, and write any emotion that you need to accurately: 

1. Skip! 

  If you have a story outline, or even an accurate idea of what comes next, then you can skip around a little bit. I do this a lot! If I have to write a scene with negative emotions and I'm happy, I usually don't want to use tip 2, so I just skip ahead to a happy scene! 

  There's nothing wrong with skipping, although it doesn't work for everyone. Sometimes it does create a bit of smoothing out during the editing phase, but I personally think that writing accurate, believable emotions is more important than a little extra work later on! 

2. Kill Your Mood

  That's right... Kill it! How we gonna do this? Guillotine?  Bullet? Whatever makes you happy. Or sad. Or whatever emotion you're trying to write.
  Basically, make yourself feel how your character is feeling. That isn't always going to be fun, because we writers can be sadistic and mean! But it's important.
  How you do this is different for everyone. For me, I just imagine that it's me in that situation and how do I feel? (I usually over dramatize it so I really get into the mood!) And how well does this work? Sometimes, like the time Jamie thought Sabrina had died, I got myself so panicked and sad that I felt physically light headed and nauseous to the point that I had to stop writing. But that scene is amazingly realistic!!
  If that doesn't work for you, here are some other ideas to try:

• Making playlists of music that make you feel a certain way
• Watching videos/reading stories that make you feel a certain way
• Writing about how that feels, every. Single. Detail. 
• Play the scene like a movie in your mind
• Think about similar things that have happened in your life (Or at least things that would get a similar emotion!) 

3. Steal The Emotions! 

  Is there a book or movie that has someone similar to your character in a similar situation? Great! You're going to do a little low key plagiarism... No, just kidding. Just because we can legally murder, abuse, and kidnap people doesn't mean that it's okay to do that. 

  But get some ideas... If you have a character who's similar to Katniss from The Hunger Games (Personality-wise) and she hears some really bad news, take a look at various scenes where Katniss hears bad news and analyze what she does and what goes on in her mind. Now use that information to describe how your own character thinks and feels about this! 

Pro Tip #1: Don't copy word for word, or make it too similar, because not only is that plagiarism but it'll obviously be a different writing style, which will make your writing worse! It should all be obviously yours! 

Pro Tip #2: Make a quick check that your character isn't too similar to the one you're using for research. Readers pick up on a lot of things, especially things like two characters from different books sounding like the same person! 

4. But How About Emotions That I Don't Know!!???? 

  Emotions that you don't know can be pretty difficult... Like, especially kissing if you've never kissed anyone. How is smashing your face against someone's mouth and like... Yeah. How is that anything but disgusting?  More importantly, why is it such a big deal??
  Okay, I got a little sidetracked there... But here's what you can do!
  Firstly, research! Read books about people who feel that way, there's a book with any emotion or anything you could imagine... Read and learn! Or if it's mental problems, look it up! There are articles and videos about the symptoms of each, and what it feels like!
  Second, you can use the tips above! I have no idea what it feels like to turn into a werewolf or have a vampire drink my blood, but I've written all about those things! All because I thought about how that would feel! (I could tell you every detail of the process; sights, sounds, thoughts, feelings, everything!)
  What if your character is like the polar opposite of you? Here's what you can do... I'll use the vampire example. Obviously, everyone would be afraid (Unless you're some immortal demi-god who could kill the vampire in a single blow or something), so use fear as your starting emotion. Now, how does your character react to fear? Some people get really angry when their afraid, like parents after they find out you did something stupid and dangerous! Or maybe your character has experience with fear and is so used to masking it that they start cracking jokes or something! Just take the base emotion of any situation, and ask yourself how that character reacts to that emotion.


  I hope you found these tips helpful! Come back soon for more writing tips, or leave a comment with any questions or posts you want to see!
(Here's an exercise: Imagine you're a writer who just started a blog, and after weeks of thinking that it's an island with no people visiting... You get a comment and follower!)